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Individual Counselling in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin

Mental Health Care in Shropshire will suffer a significant set-back with the closure of ‘Confide Counselling Service’ at the end of July.

Confide Counselling Service has been helping people in Shropshire for over thirty years. Based in the Roy Fletcher Centre in Shrewsbury, it has offered a wide range of counselling services to both adults and young people. Confide has had strong ties with both the National Health Service and with the Armed Forces, as well as with many hundreds of individuals seeking help and support. At the core of Confide’s philosophy and success has been the generosity of the team of professional counsellors and helpers who, right from Confide’s inception, have given much of their time to Confide ‘at no charge’; this has enabled the Service to charge patients what they can afford, rather than the ‘accepted counselling rate’ that most counsellors would expect to be paid for their professional services. Many hundreds of patients have been the recipients of this generosity, and it has promoted within the group of counsellors at Confide a strong feeling of giving service to those in need in this community.

Financially, every one of the thirty one years has been a struggle, but through the work of this team of dedicated professionals, Confide has kept going. Sadly, however, the re­ organisation of Mental Health provision in Shropshire, effective from the start of this financial year, involved the cancellation of two long standing contracts to Confide. This has resulted in a considerable loss of revenue, and despite considerable efforts to obtain alternative funding, the Trustees regret that there is no option other than to close Confide.

The Trustees of Confide sincerely regret that this course of action has been necessary, and are keen to make public their enormous debt of gratitude to all the counsellors, supervisors and office staff who have worked for Confide over the years. Their generosity in giving their time and expertise, often for no financial reward, has been selfless, and the people of Shropshire have been the fortunate beneficiaries of their professional expertise.

There are, of course, other professional counselling services operating in the county, and anyone seeking help could start by accessing the ‘Roy Fletcher Centre’ website which gives details of several counselling organisations.